Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/126

 ran blindly, fell on his elbows, scrambled up and stumbled into some bushes, and fought his way through them. An arm caught him across the chest and held him; and when the lightning flared again, he found himself struggling with a sapling. He clung to it, out of breath and bareheaded, with the rain trickling down the mud on his face.

He stayed there till he had regained control of himself. He found his hat. He fumbled his way back to the road and began to move up it again. He was careful, deliberate, apparently composed. But his nerve was gone, and he knew it. He knew that he had to be cautious with himself. He was trembling internally, and his legs jerked. The lightning and the thunder struck and vibrated in him as if he had been jarred loose inside. He had to stifle an impulse lifting him to yell and run back, with the wind, a part of the uproar, blown along with the rain.

The lightning disclosed a tall hemlock by